Tag-Archive for » Abby Martin «

It’s not about religion. It’s about geopolitics. It’s about controlling precious natural resources. It’s about expanding an empire.

And no, Islamophobia is not a recent phenomenon. It has been around for a few hundred years even though it has not always been known by that term.

There is no monolithic West and no monolithic East. Likewise, Islam has not always been associated with East; neither is Christianity inherently Western (bear in mind that Jesus was a Jew born in Bethlehem). The Christian Byzantine Empire thrived in “the East” up to the fifteenth century while Islam in al-Andalus lasted for almost 800 years. The notion of “clash of civilization” between Christian West and Muslim East is highly flawed.

The first contact between Islam and Europe was in the seventh century. At the time, the Europeans saw the Muslim invaders as nothing more that yet another enemy, no different from the idolaters of Northmen, Slav and Magyars. There is no indication that anyone in northern Europe knew anything about Islam or had heard of Muhammad. This lack of information didn’t stop them from developing an image of the people they called the Saracens, who they reviled as barbarians.

Muslim rule of the Iberian Peninsula (al-Andalus) lasted for eight centuries. During this period, Christians and Jews were tolerated as People of the Book and were allowed to practice their religion. This sustained contact mitigated and tempered the more hostile images.

While the rest of Europe endured a period of stagnation during the Dark Ages, al-Andalus experienced growth and development of knowledge. Various great works of great scholars, from the Greeks and the Persians, were translated into Arabic and made available in many libraries established by Muslim rulers. In the context of this flourishing civilisation, negative attitudes toward Moors (Spanish Muslims) dissipated.

For those of you who believe that Hamas is a terrorist organisation and that Hamas is Israel’s problem, consider this. Hamas was only formed in 1987, but the occupation of Palestine started in 1948. This means 39 years of massacres, imprisonment and displacement. 39 years of pretexts to kill more Palestinians. If Hamas were destroyed, Israel will find another pretext to kill.

Israel’s problem is not Hamas, it is the entire Palestinian population. Don’t let yourself be deceived. Resistance is only there because of the occupation and will remain as long as the occupation continues. Israel attack on Gaza is not self defense, it is genocide. Palestine has a right to defend itself.

The Gaza Bombardment – What You’re Not Being Told

Israel doesn’t want peace. It wants land. This is what the bombardment of Gaza is about — another land grab. Another Nakba — another cruel land grab by murder and expulsion of non-Jews.

44% of Gaza has been taken by the Israelis. They call it a ‘buffer zone’, and they have expelled the people from that region into the remainder of Gaza. The population of the most densely populated place on earth has been crammed into an even smaller space.